Redirect based on browser language

Isn't that "dangerous"?

[dwidmer]

Hello

I'm developping a multi-language website.
In order to redirect the user to the appropriate language
I redirect him to the page he's supposed to see, using
ACCEPT_LANGUAGE.

There are 3 languages supported and if the has his browser set to
a different language, he will be redirected to a special page which
lets him choose among the possible languages.
The page will not be available in english.

Do you think that this might be dangerous, because search engine
spiders may use [EN] as language?

experience with multiple language sites?

Dan

[jatar_k]

If you go with "only if they have it set" it should be ok. What happens if they don't? Can a user or spider follow links to the various languages?

[vincevincevince]

I suggest you include normal links to change language somewhere. That way spiders, and older browsers, can still change language easily.

[daisho]

Acctually it sounds like you should be fine. You said that if the browser does not have a known (or unset) ACCEPT_LANGUAGE then you will direct to a page to let them choose. Once they choose I assume that you ignore ACCEPT_LANGUAGE from that point on.

If that's the case then you are fine. Crawlers will come and with an unsupported ACCEPT_LANGUAGE they will get the selection then happily crawl all your languages.

In addition you may want to try and set a cookie (bots will ignore it but that's not a problem) for users that were not autodetected. That way you can redirect based on the cookie also rather than forcing users with unsupported ACCEPT_LANGUAGE to have to choose every time.

daisho.

[vincevincevince]

the only potential problem is:
browser has valid language set...
only given that language's pages...
your content in the other languages never gets spidered

[daisho]

True True vvv. Might also be a wise choice to have icons in the corner (maybe coutry flags) so a user can switch languages easy (and so can a spider).

daisho

[lukasz]

As a user I had many problems with automatic selection of language. The worst offender - Microsoft redirects me automaticaly to a Japanese page which doesnt have a word in english and no link to change the language and I dont read Japanese. (however that redirection is probably based on IP address and browser language).
So think about people accessing you page from internet cafes in other countries, expats and so on. So always have the option to hange the language.

[bilalak]

No this is not a good strategy
The main google database is based on google main bot. this bot would only follow one redirect based on one language only. Then u loose good ranking for other languages.

The best is to mention the language in the META tags as others has suggested in another thread.

[saoi_jp]

lukasz has an excellent point. The same thing happens to me often, since half the time I'm using Japanese browsers.

Also consider what to do with browsers that are not on the list of languages; they have to go somewhere.